Wisconsin’s 2024 schedule was among the hardest in school history, featuring national powers in Alabama, Oregon and Penn State. That difficulty played a role in the Badgers finishing under .500 and missing a bowl game for the first time since 2001. Unfortunately, it appears 2025, and how the schedule sets up, will be even more difficult for Coach Luke Fickell in his third year with the program.

As first reported on The Athletic, the conference released the dates for the 2025 schedule on Wednesday and a four-game stretch in October is impossible to ignore. The Badgers will open the month by traveling to Michigan (Oct. 4), where it hasn’t won with fans in the stands since 2010. That will be followed up by a visit from Iowa (Oct. 11), a team that ran for 329 yards on its way to a 42-10 beatdown of Wisconsin last season. Fickell and Co. will get another home game the following weekend (Oct. 18) as Ohio State comes to Camp Randall Stadium. The Badgers haven’t beaten the Buckeyes since 2010. They close out the brutal month with a trip to Eugene to face Oregon (Oct. 25), which beat Wisconsin in Madison this year on its way to an unbeaten Big Ten title and is the No. 1 seed in this year’s College Football Playoffs.

The rest of the slate isn’t much easier. After opening the year against Miami (Ohio) on Aug. 30 and Middle Tennessee on Sept. 6, a visit to 18-time national champion Alabama comes on Sept. 13. The Tide came into Madison this past season and blew out the Badgers 42-10. Wisconsin will open the Big Ten season against Maryland (Sept. 20) before a bye week leading into the month of October.

The Badgers will also get a bye after the Oregon game before a closing stretch of Washington (Nov. 8) at home, at a suddenly resurgent Indiana (Nov. 15), home to Illinois (Nov. 22) before closing with the battle for Paul Bunyan’s Axe in Minnesota. It hasn’t been determined if that game will be on Black Friday again or not.

Fickell is 12-13 in his first two years in Madison, including 6-10 in Big Ten play. It’s the worst start to a coaching tenure at Wisconsin since Barry Alvarez went 6-16 in 1990 and 1991. Alvarez went 5-6 in 1992 before having a breakout year in 1993 that ended with the Badgers being Big Ten Champions and winning the school’s first Rose Bowl.

Full schedule:
Aug. 30 – Miami (Ohio)
Sept. 6 – Middle Tennessee
Sept. 13 – at Alabama
Sept. 20 – Maryland
Sept. 27 – BYE
Oct. 4 – at Michigan
Oct. 11 – Iowa
Oct. 18 – Ohio State
Oct. 25 – at Oregon
Nov. 1 – BYE
Nov. 8 – Washington
Nov. 15 – at Indiana
Nov. 22 – Illinois
Nov. 28/29 – at Minnesota